WHO says no plague case registered after Russian lab worker’s death

The WHO says the lack of a confirmed diagnosis remains a key uncertainty, with no sign of ongoing transmission.

Al JazeeraAl Jazeera Staff2026-10-10 22:34查看原文 ↗

The WHO says the lack of a confirmed diagnosis remains a key uncertainty, with no sign of ongoing transmission.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference on global health issues, in Geneva, on October 7, 2026 [Fabrice Coffrini/AFP]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it still does not know what caused the pneumonia that killed a laboratory worker at a Russian plague research institute and that no case of plague has been registered.

Russia’s state health regulator told the WHO that tests on the worker and people who had been in contact with her were negative for the dangerous pathogens they tested for, the United Nations health agency said in a statement on Saturday.

list 1 of 3 Russia denies imposing anti-plague measures after lab worker death

list 2 of 3 US CDC says it’s ‘aware of and closely monitoring’ Russian plague case

list 3 of 3 Russian lab worker dies of suspected plague in Siberia; US monitoring case

Her contacts still showed no symptoms, and no further linked cases of severe pneumonia had been found, the WHO added.

“Based on the information provided… WHO has not identified evidence of ongoing transmission associated with this event. A key uncertainty remains the absence of a confirmed diagnosis in the deceased laboratory worker,” it said.

The worker fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances on October 2, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people and stoking public health fears on social media.

Russian media named her as Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, in the Siberian region of Irkutsk.

Pneumonic plague, a lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually found in small mammals and their fleas, was suspected early on.

The governor of neighbouring Buryatia said the woman had “died, maybe of the plague”.

Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said she had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.

Russian authorities said the worker was appropriately vaccinated and that no microorganisms linked to her work were found in her body. They say post-mortem tests did not detect plague.

On Thursday, Russia said it had completed health checks on all her contacts and had given the WHO all the information.

A local official said on October 6 that 60 percent of those placed in quarantine had already been released.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked Russia on Wednesday to respond to media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause. Russia dismissed the reports as “false information”.

The United States has also called on Russia for transparency.

Global health officials have been extra alert to deadly pneumonia cases of unknown cause since the COVID-19 pandemic, which began with a cluster of fast-spreading, fatal respiratory illness in China.

The cause of individual pneumonia cases often cannot be determined.

世界卫生组织表示，缺乏确诊病例仍然是一个关键的不确定因素，而且没有迹象表明存在持续传播。

2026年10月7日，世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞在日内瓦举行的全球卫生问题新闻发布会上发表讲话。[Fabrice Coffrini/AFP]

世界卫生组织（世卫组织）表示，目前仍不清楚导致俄罗斯鼠疫研究所一名实验室工作人员死亡的肺炎病因，并且尚未发现鼠疫病例。

联合国卫生机构周六在一份声明中表示，俄罗斯国家卫生监管机构告诉世卫组织，对该名工人及其接触者的检测结果显示，他们检测的危险病原体呈阴性。

列表 1/3：俄罗斯否认在实验室工作人员死亡后采取防疫措施

美国疾控中心表示，他们“已了解并密切监测”俄罗斯鼠疫病例（共3例，此为第2例）。

名单中的第三名：一名俄罗斯实验室工作人员在西伯利亚疑似死于鼠疫；美国正在监测该病例

世界卫生组织补充说，她的密切接触者仍未出现任何症状，也没有发现其他与之相关的严重肺炎病例。

“根据所提供的信息……世卫组织尚未发现与此次事件相关的持续传播证据。目前仍存在一个关键的不确定因素，即尚未对已故实验室工作人员进行确诊，”声明称。

10 月 2 日，一名工人患病死亡，死因不明，导致当局隔离了约 200 人，并在社交媒体上引发了公众对健康的担忧。

俄罗斯媒体称她名叫达里娅·希皮洛娃，28岁，是西伯利亚和远东地区伊尔库茨克抗瘟疫研究所的实验室技术员，该研究所位于西伯利亚的伊尔库茨克州。